So Flying Machine has been doing a thing recently. And it wasn't long into the thing-doing that I decided that I'd set some rules for myself very early on in the process, and I remembered that one of the First things I decided about Worlds Apart was that I wanted it to be longer than Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons (23 minutes). In the end I ended up with a rather lovely 26 minute affair that I was super happy with and now my scope has taken on new heights. The new album is currently planned to consist of a single 1 hour long song. Or piece of music maybe, it can scarcely be called a song.

My question to you then, Frost*ies, is:

Do you thing anyone would listen to it if it were an hour long?

My argument is that I'm really not writing it to be consumed by anyone else, and I really think I'd rather have a single dirty great 1 hour long thing than splitting it into separate tracks, because then it's no different from any other album where the songs go into each other. But my drummer is insisting that it's a thoroughly terrible idea.

So there's a Huddersfield based company called Rattle and Thud that do music videos and they asked me to do one (do a video, not just to do one.), so I wrote a song just for them and performed it on a video. With a guitar and everyfink. I'm buzzing super hard, you guys

Or at least we've recovered the wings from where they dropped off and we're slowly trying to work out which ends to glue them on to...

Writing some new proggy epic stuff and hopefully it'll be a proper release. Hoping to do a bit of vlogging for it as well Frost* report style, or at least using the soundcloud as a blog of how it's all going. The first teaser section idea is up there now. Just gonna have bits and pieces as they get written or recorded and hopefully get some public involvement in how the new album is coming together. You guys made my feel super confident with releasing Worlds Apart, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this yields!

Hello, all! Sorry about the repost for all of you who are following Flying Machine on Facebook, but I thought I'd post in here since the last time I did I had a marvelous response and a reyt good time going through all the entries!

"Competition time!

Hello everyone, we're back again with a new competition in the run up to the release of our new album 'Roots' later this month.

For those of you who haven't partaken before, this is how it goes:

This backing track is the solo section from 'Overdose', one of the tracks on our new album, with the lead guitar part taken out.

The backing track is 16 bars of 4/4 timing at somewhere in the region of 130bpm-ish. The chords move between Dsus2 and Csus2/A, but it's based around A minor, so that's a good starting point if you're stuck, or not into following chords.

So once you've done it, head over to our Soundcloud page (http://soundcloud.com/flying-machine) and have a listen to the other entries and Like all of the ones that you think are cool. The one with the most likes by the end of the competition will be declared the winner, and will receive a free copy of the new album! (Cue audience woo)

The deadline for submissions will be midnight on the 30th of September and the winner will be announced on the 1st of October, so get recording!

And for any of you who don't play an instrument, but are just in it for the music, have a listen to the entries on our Soundcloud and make sure you vote for your favourite!

For those who don't win the big star prize, the album will be available as a physical CD and also as a digital download from Bandcamp (flyingmachine.bandcamp.com/) for the low low price of £5, and all the profits from the sale of the album will be going to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/).

You can also buy our last EP 'Worlds Apart' from there for £1. Profits again are being donated to the CF Trust.

Thanks very much for participating, however you choose to do it. We truly couldn't do any of this without you guys, and we really appreciate it.

Hello again, chums! Just a quick plug for Solo Competition that's currently going on on the Flying Machine Soundcloud page.

For those of you who missed it last time, the idea is that it's a just-for-fun thing, whereby people download the backing track (https://soundcloud.com/flying-machine/solo-competition-3-backing), overdub a solo, and send it over to flyingmachinetheband@gmail.com so I can upload it, and then we vote by liking the one we prefer when it's all done! No prizes, I just always think it's fun to see what other people would do over the same backing track, I get some really nice, different ideas every time!

This isn't limited to guitars, by the way. Feel free to do a keys solo, or sax solo, or an anything solo. Make it interesting!

Wowza! Just watched the video and everything is sounding pretty spectacular. I'd quite like to hear details of the jingles' development, though, if anyone involved has the time to blog it. Would be well interesting.

I was wondering about the snare sound in some of the more electronic ones as well, and it sounds like that ubiquitous dubstep/D&B snare. As cool as it sounds, I do wonder if it'll stand the test of time like the previous jingles did, just because of how quickly electronic music moves. No offence meant by that, obviously, just something I was wondering about.

Also, if I was Jeremy Vine, I'd just watch the part of the video where the singer belts 'JEREMY VINE' into the microphone again, and again, and again...

Yes it's true! I won't spam y'all with links because they're in the Friends of Frost* subforum already, but my band released our first EP earlier today and a few people have bought it. it's not like I'm making a lot of money, but this is one of the happiest days of my life.

I know I donít post much nowadays, what with uni being busy and all, but I have just released the EP Iíve been working on for the past 5 years.Itís definitely the best thing Iíve ever done.So go and give it a listen, maybe even a download if youíre feeling generous (itís only a pound, which is a good deal for 25 minutes of prog).Iím finally selling my music and itís a real dream come true.

Ok, so here's a preview, and I'm not sure I like the mix. I have about 7 days until the hand in date (it's a university project) and I can't tell what's missing from the mix. Can anyone give me any pointers? I'd really appreciate it